Department/Program Review Summary
2004-05
Department: English
Date of Review: May 25, 2005
Review Team Members and Titles:
Jeanne Jacobs, Vice President for Instruction, Instructional Division
Barb Adams, Professor, DEV
Debbie Badonsky, Professor, Paralegal
Rocky Belcher, Assistant Professor, BIS
Jim Brooks, Professor, DEV
Doug Easterling, Director, Institutional Planning and Research
Helen Grove, Dean, Extended Learning Division
Sue Merrell, Director, Curriculum, Assessment & Continuous Improvement
Cheryl Reindl-Johnson, Chair, BIS
Katy Riehle, Instructor, DEV
Gordon Robinson, Counselor/Professor, Business Technologies
Chuck Sowerbrower, Chair, Emergency Medical Services
Department Members Present:
Gary Mitchner, Chair
Ken Angel, Professor
Jack Bennett, Professor
Kay Berg, Professor
Susan Callender, Professor
Elizabeth Christensen, Assistant Professor
Ed Davis, Professor
James Dunham, Assistant Professor
Fortunate Finley, Secretary
Charles Freeland, Assistant Professor
Dana Frierson, Associate Professor
Kathryn Geiselman, Assistant Professor
Sarah Kiewitz, Associate Professor
Sally Lahmon, Assistant Professor
Mildred Melendez, Professor
Carol Nancarrow, Associate Professor
Jennifer Riley, Assistant Professor
Vicki Stalbird, Assistant Professor
Lisa Tyler, Professor
Tim Waggoner, Associate Professor
Charles Wagner, Professor
Richard Jones, Dean, Liberal Arts and Sciences
Commendations
The English department is commended for the following noteworthy accomplishments:
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Good sense of the broad mission and variety of stakeholders served by this department
Breadth of talent and scholarly activities of faculty members as evidenced in Section 6 of the
self-study
Respectful collegiality among faculty members
Awareness of the importance of quality instruction
Commitment to serving students through a variety of learning formats
Attention to the relationship of reading to student success in ENG courses
Highly interactive discussion during the department review
Recommendations for Action:
 Establish priorities and develop a timeline for implementing the department’s strategic plan,
CITs and these recommendations.
 Explore avenues to offer additional sections of ENG 111 and ENG 112 by
o Studying the curricular balance between ENG (12,000 students per year) and LIT
(800 students per year)
o Expanding distance learning offerings by utilizing part-time faculty
o Increasing the number of sections and times offered as suggested by student survey
data.
 Consider a more formal approach to data gathering and analysis that focuses on direct
measures of student learning.
 Update master syllabi to ensure currency and alignment with state transfer and articulation.
 Utilize common assessment tool(s) to measure course outcomes in high enrollment courses.
 Continue collaboration with Developmental Studies department to support student transition
from DEV to college-level English.
 Improve and document success of the mentoring process for the part-time faculty.
 Increase and improve internal communications to ensure common understanding of accurate
information about the activities within the department and the support available within the
college. Clarify misinformation about the following:
o Distance learning “helpdesk” for students and faculty
o Classroom and lab scheduling software
o Distance learning course proposal process
o Faculty training for distance learning course development, e.g., Summer Institute
opportunities
o Faculty training and development on assessment (including CMT), e.g., faculty
training and development opportunities during institutes.
 Follow through on the departmental CIT stated in Tab #7 of the self-study document to
analyze the factors that may have contributed to the increase in cost/FTE for the department.
 Examine the relative benefits of an external review process versus other approaches to
understanding stakeholder needs and issues of program quality.
 Consider possible curricular strategies (modular development) to improve the success of
students in ENG 112.
 Pilot test plagiarism software, such as turnitin.com
Overall Assessment of Department’s Progress and Goals:
The English department’s involvement in the inaugural year of the department/program review
process is laudable. In the well-attended review meeting, a variety of topics were discussed. In
some instances, issues identified revealed a need for increased communication and
understanding of departmental activities and college-level support structures. With the
establishment and data-driven prioritization of activities, the English department will be in better
position to support the needs of the college.
Institutional or Resource Barriers to the Department’s Ability to Accomplish its Goals, if
any:
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Discussion during this department review identified a need to activate the waitlist feature in
Colleague to provide information on the number of students who tried to register for the
course and found it closed.
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The English department asked about the possible availability of professional tutors for the
Writing Center.